Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Costa Rica : Quepos

I visited Costa Rica with my family late last summer. We flew into San Jose and stayed overnight, then departed the next morning for Quepos. We flew on Nature Airlines out of Pavas Airport (NOT the international airport, by the way...that's Juan Santamaria, which is approximately 10 miles away). The Nature Airlines website says that the flight to Quepos leaves from Juan Santamaria, but after we booked our flight we checked the itinerary and it said we would depart from Pavas. The tickets were relatively affordable; approximately $198 round trip, including taxes.
The flight itself was gorgeous. The plane was tiny, so if you have a fear of flying I wouldn't recommend it. Personally, I thought it was the highlight of the trip. The runway in Quepos looked like something out of Jurassic Park. The airport itself was a single-room open-air building furnished with lawn furniture. There was a small bar in the corner where patrons could purchase drinks and snacks. The best part? No lines. Or security, for that matter.

A word to the wise - if you fly through a similar airport in Costa rica, pick up an exit tax form. You'll need to fill one of these forms out before you leave the country, and the lines for them at the international airport in San Jose are quite long.

We took a shuttle to our hotel, La Mariposa. It wasn't what I'd call a budget hotel, but it was worth the bill. The view from the hotel looked like a computer screensaver, and the rooms were furnished with rustic wooden furniture.

 White faced monkeys freely roamed the staircases and balconies and stole food from the hotel's outdoor breakfast buffet. Unfortunately we had taken our trip during Costa Rica's rainy season (constant rain and humidity = lower prices) so we didn't have many opportunities to use the hotel's infinity pool. We played pool instead.

It was a short hike to Playitas beach (well perhaps not too short). A warning for families with kids (or a tip for bachelors): some people apparently consider this to be a topless beach. There were a lot of large volcanic rocks on the beach, but the sand was soft. The beach is lovely, but be careful - at one end of the beach, near Manuel Antonio Park, there is a sign posted warning of Fecal Contamination in the river that flows from the forest into the ocean. A few locals even offer rides across the shallow river in beat-up rowboats so that you won't have to wade through it. The water looked and smelled clean, though, and some local children were playing in the river, so I'm not sure how "contaminated" the water actually was.

There are lot's of things to do in Quepos. Manuel Antonio Park is the big local attraction. It was crowded, even in the rainy season, but there is plenty of wildlife to see. By the way, if you're going to Manuel Antonio, try to remember to take your ID. We needed ours to get into the park. We saw sloths, monkeys, frogs, crabs, bats, hummingbirds, toucans, basilisk lizards, and raccoons. The beach in the park was beautiful, but the water was a bit rough (at least when the tide was coming in). My family and I were walking along the beach near the treeline and were unexpectedly knocked over by some large waves. We were completely soaked and I lost one of my cameras, unfortunately.
On a different day we arranged to have a horseback tour through the rain forest. A van picked us up at our hotel and drove us about 40 minutes away to a little town called Londres. We ate a complimentary breakfast and then we were given our horses. Our guide was very friendly and talkative. He led us to a huge waterfall about an hour's ride into the forest. The guide and some of the more adventurous members of the group decided to climb halfway up the waterfall for a cool photo op. A short walk away was a small pool of very blue, very cold water where we were allowed to swim for about half an hour.
After the swim, we rode back and had a very good lunch. The mahi mahi was delicious.
If you're ever in Quepos, you have to stop at Cafe Milagro. I'm not a coffee fan personally, but Cafe Milagro had some GREAT coffee. I even bought a bag to take home. The friendly resident dog is a just a plus.






Monday, March 3, 2014

Salutations

Greetings! I have finally, after much deliberation, decided to create a travel blog. The main purpose of this blog is as a personal journal of my travels both in the US and abroad, but I will also sprinkle it with travel tips and advice aimed at the solo budget traveler.
Well, now that we've got the statement of purpose out of the way, it's time to tell you a bit about myself : my name is Rachel and I'm a 24 (soon to be 25) year-old resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I was born in Alexandria, Scotland, and grew up in various military bases around the United States. I attribute my wanderlust to my early nomadic lifestyle (something that I'm sure other military brats will sympathize with). I am in a relationship with a wonderful (and brilliant) guy named Charch, and we live in the (locally) infamous South Side. I am currently working as an assistant manager at a local dry cleaners, trying to save for school and airfare and everything else. Exciting, I know.
As I'm sure you can imagine, I'm not exactly wealthy. My lack of funds hasn't stopped me from travelling, though, and that is the main inspiration for this blog. My goal is to help and inspire other "low income" travelers to see the world.
If you happen to stumble across my little corner of the internet, I want to give you a hearty thanks for staying long enough to read what I have to say. Happy travels!